Candy Bar Challenge Week 4 – Bounty

“What is hairy on the outside, wet on the inside, starts with a C and ends with a T?” “A coconut.”

My initial excursion into tasting coconut candy did not go so well, so I was extremely worried about taking another journey back to the Caribbean. I decided to lash some bamboo together, build a raft and sail south to find some luscious coconuts to wrap my lips around and suck the milk from. Then I came back to Chicago and ate a Bounty.

The Bounty is Mars’ Euro version of the Mounds, a cross-ocean coconut battle between Hershey and Mars. (I haven’t had a Mounds yet but I have been doing some deep dive research into the candy industry.) Mars does zero marketing of the Bounty in the US but I stumbled across this treat in the candy section of Cost Plus World Market. CPWM has become my new candy mecca, in addition I now have a different set of glassware for every type of beverage imaginable. (If you’ve been to CPWM you know my sorrow, if not… they sell a lot of awesome glassware.) Frozen margarita glass = check, margarita on the rocks glass = not the same glass, lemonade glass and iced tea glass = different glasses…

I’m usually not the type of guy to just shove two coconut treats in my mouth at the same time but I felt up to the challenge and decided to make my move.

Just like the Almond Joy the Bounty comes in two small bars. A small difference in the wrapping is that the Almond Joy has a cardboard tray holding the double treats but the Bounty just slides it in unprotected and takes their chances. Not having any protection is a risk but I respect their heart by slipping the treat in there naked and accepting the risk. I read online that having the tray gives the Almond Joy a 2% success rate versus the Bounty not having a tray and simply pulling the candy out at a 4% success rate. I like to just take my chances and pull it out.

Overall, I was reasonably pleased with the Bounty. The coconut was soft and supple and it tasted more raw and organic than the Almond Joy. The chocolate was richer and it was just plain more delicious than the Almond Joy. It won’t be the candy that turns me into a sweet tooth, because once you go snack you can never go back, but after that horrible Bit-O-Crap last week the Bounty was refreshing.